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ÖSTERREICHISCHES INSTITUT FÜR WIRTSCHAFTSFORSCHUNG AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH WIFOWIFO Wien 3, Arsenal, Objekt 20 A-1103 Wien, Postfach 91 P.O. BOX 91, A 1103 Vienna – Austria http://www.wifo.ac.at/ Tel. (+43 1) 798 26 01 0 Fax (+43 1) 798 93 86 3) The Benchmark At the heart of …evaluation is a missing variable problem since an individual (a firm) is either in the programme…or not, but not both. If we could observe the outcome variable for those in the programme had they not participated then there would be no evaluation problem… Thus, constructing the counterfactual is the central issue that the evaluation methods …address (Blundell/Costats Dias, 2000)